The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-11-17
A Lock Of Hair.

A Lock OF Hair.
When the federals got possession of
the Shenandoah valley and repaired the
railroad track and ran their trains, de.
tachments of predatory bands made it
business to lie in ambush and fire into
the coaches. A good deal of this work
was done for time by men belonging to
Imboden and Mosby's commands, and
finally, to protect themselves, the feder.
ais used to take along number of
southern citizens. Some would be COM
PEELED to ride on the engine, and the
others would be distributed through the
cars, thus making the chances even that
if volley was fired some of our own
people would be killed. This stopped
the practice of ambushing trains, but
not until the writer had had very close
call from death.
I was scouting around Winchester, and
had just left farm house where 1 had
remained all night, when a squadron Of
federal cavalry struck my trail. l was
bounded and dogged until mid afternoon
before I got clear away from them, and
during this time was put to such phys
ical exertions that was seized with a
chill about o'clock in the afternoon and
soon became loo i'll to travel. 1 was
then in the woods, and there l remained
until next day at noon, a part of the
time out of MY lead. finally got bet
ter, and partly by walking and partly by
crawling reached farm house q mile
away. The farmer was a southern man,
too old to go into the service, and l would
have been received with all kindness but
for the federals. 1 had scarcely entered
the house when q detachment of them
rode up to the gate, and ten minutes
later 1 was being carried off as prisoner.
The only good feature about it was
that was taken for a rebel deserter in
stead of spy, and my treatment was,
therefore, fur better. In three or four
days l was all right again, and then I
was ordered aboard cDe of the trains and
given half the engineers seat. Indeed,
| was chained there, and when the officer
who had the matter in hand left me he
was kind enough to say:
"There, now, if your cursed rebel
friends can fire into this side of the cab
without hitting you let them pop away !"
Ihad brother at the time in Mosby's
command, and I knew that be had been
engaged in the work Of firing upon
trains. I somehow felt that we should
be fired upon, and that I should see
Frank that day, and both events quickly
came to pass. We we're not fifteen
miles out of Winchester, and were just
pulling out of a heavy cut into piece
of woods, when 1 caught sight Of the
head and face Of man above log.
We were running not over fifteen miles
an hour, and I was looking into the
woods. The man in ambush was still
ahead of us when I saw him, and we
were not ten feet nearer when recog
nized the face as Franks. In the same
instant l saw that he had q cavalry car
bine resting across the log, and that there
were four or five other men beyond him.
They were there to fire volley into the
train, and we on the engine would get it
first. I had only seconds in which to
act. The first thing was to shout to the
engineer and fireman to drop to the floor,
and the next to wheel squarely around
and shout to Frank:
"For Gods sake, don't shout! It's
Ed-hold on!
Franks gun was pointed full at my
face as I shouted, and we looked right
into each others eyes. In that brief
instant l saw borrow come to his eyes,
his face grew white as SLOW, and he could
not move his lips. His finger was pull.
ing the trigger, and it WAS too late. A
sheet of flame leaped up at ME, some
thing burned the side of my cheek, and
then we had passed on. There was but
the one shot. The other men had heard
my warning in time to hold their fire.
For about minute I could not tell
whether 1 was badly hurt or had escaped
scott free. But by and by 1 discovered
that had bullet blister across my right
cheek, and had lost lock of hair big
enough to divide among half dozen
sweethearts.
My action in warning the engineer
and fireman was laid up to my credit, but
for the next four weeks I had to keep
my seat on the locomotive. 1t was the
last time any train was fred on, however,
and if l did the federals all the damage
1 could before and after, they had to
thank me for clearing railroad line of
dangerous enemy.
Saved by the Kick of his Mule.